The Sand Bar

I was born pretty much immediately after the collapse of yuppie-dom in a sort of aftermath of the suburbanite cookie-cutter culture of the mid-20th century, so unfortunately I don’t have much to say about that… delicate period in American history. Driven by an obsessive desire for self-improvement spawned from the prosperous comfort of the 50’s and 60’s, the rise of the original yuppies was fueled by the consumption of the baby-boomer generation in an effort to escape the confines of Madison Avenue. But the crash in the late 80’s and the recession in the early 90’s triggered a contingency of doom and gloom for the yuppies of old, and the electing of George H. W. Bush into the White House appeared to be the final blow, landing Old Money as the clear and tested winner.

Well, that was then; this is now. The financial collapses of the late-20th century created a confusion that left the American identity struggling to figure out how to reconcile its modernist life quest with the value system of old, previously consummated by materialism and hedonistic consumerism. But after the dust had settled, a new void had appeared, replacing the old quest for Middle America with a free-floating search for a post-modernist value system.

It was clear that the suburbanite lifestyle once yearned for was not going to carry us into the 21st century, and as a result, a new era of consumerist, capitalist America was born. The internet eruption throughout the 90’s set the stage for a new form of value system set in cyberspace. The migration, or rather infiltration, of businesses into the internet world triggered a massive shift in American consumerist ideology, spawning waves of change in the traditional consumerist lifestyle. This change was what filled the void left by Middle America. The elite urban societies, what once traded comments about Italian suits and Chardonnay became hubs for the latest Blackberry and BMW. Cities transformed seemingly overnight into technological lightning rods. College graduates were not seeking the Plain Jane lifestyles of their parents, but instead were longing for duplexes in San Diego or an apartment in New York City, equipped with steel walls and metal floors and shiny appliances that saved the environment as they cooked and cleaned their organic foods and organic fabrics.

The new decade, though it is still a year and one day away, will bring to light the rebirth of the yuppie. Whether this time, yuppie-dom and its ensuing post-post-modern materialism and consumerism will thrive and survive credit-driving businesses and somehow subvert a financial meltdown, that is hard to say. Despite this uncertainty, it is clear that until the traditional American value system is reconciled with the values of the post-baby-boomer generation, the yuppie will never truly be dead.

The other day I was walking past the Sundial with my friend Beaker where draped in in front of the fountain hung a bunch of international flags all in a line. I wanted to try a little social experiment, so I pointed ambiguously to the line of flags and said to him, “Hey, there’s my flag.” He looked at me and said, “Oh, you mean the Chinese one?” And I said to him, “No, I mean the American one.”

Whenever people talk about ‘racial tension’, it’s always in regard to blacks. It seems like the country has just simply forgotten about the struggles of the other two major minorities that live here, hispanics and asians. Asians have been around since the beginning, migrating from China, Japan, and Korea to seek a better life and opportunity, just like all the other immigrants that came here. Why is it, then, that even after all these years, we still find it hard to become accepted into American society? The best example I can think of is the Irish. America experienced a mass migration of Irish in the mid 1800’s. The Irish population was at first ill-treated, bearing the brunt of the Industrial Revolution, working in factories for ridiculously low wages and terrible environments. Americans commonly treated the Irish as criminals and scum of the streets. There was once a saying, “Let Negroes be servants, and if not Negroes, let Irishmen fill their place.”

But the Irish remained fiercely loyal to America; they pulled together, organized Irish towns, even fought in the Civil War. Soon after, they were able to assimilate into American mainstream society. They even got their own holiday: St. Patrick’s Day.

The Jews, Slavs, and Italians all had their respective turns at being the low-rung on the American hierarchy of respect, but over time have steadily risen to find their place in American culture. I feel that the Chinese, on the other hand, have not found their place. My friend Beaker, when he thought I meant the Chinese flag, meant no offense of course, but still I felt offended anyway. I felt like he was labeling me as something of an outsider, like I wasn’t really an American, but a Chinese man living in America.

It’s in part, I think, our own fault that we have failed to climb the social ladder. Our eastern culture prescribes that we lower our heads to our superiors, we keep our opinions to ourselves, and we never boast or brag or claim credit for anything. We are taught from the very beginning to hold everybody higher than ourselves. This is all good and fine; humility is a virtuous quality, after all. But when we are so subservient that we don’t even cry out against the wrongs that have been committed to us? That is a crime. The other day, I was waiting in line at the Diner for lunch. Just as I had gotten what I’d order and was walking over toward the tables to find a place to eat, I heard the the two guys that were standing behind me say, “Look at all these damn Asians.” I was greatly injured. Not a single white American will ever feel how I felt at that moment, because he will never be in a position where he is treated as a lower person just because of his race. I didn’t do anything about what those dudes said because I didn’t want to make a big scene out of everything.

The story of racism toward Asians is a quiet, low-keyed one that nobody really seems to talk much about. But until this story is told to the world loudly and proudly, nothing will ever change. When people automatically stereotyped me for an Asian, like they’d say I was good at math and spent my Friday nights playing video games and chess and ping pong, I’d just ignore them and say nothing, sometimes even lie by agreeing just for the sake of avoiding argument. But I have since vowed that from now on, I will speak up and defend myself. Because although I love China and all she has to offer, I am also an American.